Why We Do What We Do

It was twenty-five years ago when Rick Lasky and John Salka first met. The meeting took place at a national training conference in Indianapolis, Indiana. John had just developed his firefighter rescue program "Get Out Alive" and Rick had just developed a program called "Saving Our Own." The two instantly hit it off, and a friendship was born. Soon they began teaching on the same circuits, and it wasn't long before they started teaching and lecturing together. Though their firefighter rescue programs were taking off at a great pace nationally, they still enjoyed teaching a variety of other topics such as strategy and tactics, disaster planning, fire company officer development and leadership, to name a few.

But it was the leadership arena that began to work its way to the top of their vast instructional topic bin. Rick and John began accepting more and more invitations to speak on a variety of leadership programs. Most of this was in the fire service community. That was until September 11, 2001. As a result of the attacks on the World Trade Center, Rick lost several friends and John suffered a loss so staggering that it almost tore down the inner core of our nation's largest fire department, attacking their "family" and testing a tradition that has endured for more than 150 years. If it were not for the leadership that was built on strong core values, the loss to this great fire department and to those departments across the country would have been even greater.

It was at this point that prominent members of the business community began to realize that the fire service had something very special to offer to the business world: a new vision on leadership and a fascinating method for the development of future leaders. It was also during this time that word was getting out that two fire chiefs had developed an innovative leadership program that applied the leadership experiences of the fire service to the business community. Their program, Five Alarm Leadership, the first of its kind in the country, takes real-world leadership lessons from these two fire chiefs who live the leadership experience every day of their lives and have done so through some of the toughest and most challenging times that our nation has faced. The program is so popular that it has blossomed into six different keynotes, a two-hour breakout session, a half-day workshop, and an eight-hour seminar.

Rick and John absolutely love what they do. Their enthusiasm is catching, their energy addicting. With them, you don't just get another canned leadership lecture or workshop; you get the real thing from real people and from real leaders.